Can you paint with all the colors of the wind? I can.

This past weekend, among group projects, working on my book, and watching "A Very Potter Musical" for the first time (Seriously, just search it on YouTube if you haven't watched it, it's a winner. Yes, I'm like 4 years late to this party, I realize this. But hey, nobody was around so I sang Tangled and watched the musical. Sue me.) I also went to a Holi Party on St. John's Island.

St. John is a small island off the Southern coast of Singapore, a quick 15 minute boat ride away from the Marina. We had a blast and were there for 6 hours! It was my first experience with a Holi Festival and it was a great one. (Though I'm having trouble getting some of the colors out) For those who don't know what a Holi Festival is, click here

(I changed colors frequently, this was when we got attacked by orange and pink. More on Facebook)

Many of you will recognize it as a "color festival", there's a few great videos on YouTube is you want a better idea of what happens (Here's probably the best one) and it was a blast! I highly recommend finding one either in your area, or if you are traveling in Asia in the Spring, definitely try to go to one!

With only one month of school left, projects and final exams are picking up. I have a very busy few weeks coming up, but I'm looking forward to some great things too! (Including BALI!) My family is coming this next week and I will be showing them around Singapore and then we will head over to Bintan in Indonesia for some beach time.

My blog has just been contributed to the Singapore Memory Project as well, so it will be available on their website shortly, I'll post the link here when it is. Their project is collecting stories of Singapore as a national initiative, and I'm happy to contribute what I can to it. I even got a badge for it:

I'm still working on a post about education here and working on some blog posts for the Foster School of Business Study Abroad Blog, I'll post them here as well when they are finished (Or at least post links here). But for now, if you'll excuse me I have to go work on group projects, sing more very manly songs, and try to figure out how to get this color out of my white sheets.

Until next time!

100 years passed and my brother and I discovered the new blog post...

Why the hell did I pick that title? Points for getting the joke and not thinking I'm a complete dork. Anyway... moving on.

Well hello there! It's been a long time hasn't it. I'm sure we've all changed over our time apart, but I think we can get along just the same as we did in the old days. You know, back when I posted regularly.

Sarcasm aside, I do apologize that I have been absent from posting, once again I am still alive (though barely, my current GPA projections aren't looking too pleased after that bout of midterms I just crawled through) But I'm back on top and I mean who can complain on a tropical island. (I can, too many bugs and humidity, beaches aren't bad though) But more on how I'm going to fix my regular-posting-issue after this small anecdote that has been long overdue.

Over the week I got the chance to experience part of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. One of the most popular and recognizable pieces of architecture in Singapore and by far one of the most expensive hotels in the country.

(It's the big one with the boat on top, also next to the science museum and Avalon Night Club)

I got a chance to look around the shopping on the ground floor and then I rode the elevator to the top to spend a wonderful evening in the "SkyPark" of Marina Bay Sands. The skypark houses an observation deck, a restaurant, an all-you-can-eat chocolate buffet, a night club, and the famous infinity pool (Which is reserved for Hotel Guests only)

I recommend coming in the evening if you simply want to visit the SkyPark (If you actually fork over the money for a room here, spend all day in that pool, it's worth it). The view is better at night in my opinion, and the night club and chocolate bar are only open in the evening. While the view is splendid (though I was spoiled by 1-Altitude's much higher view) and the night club is pretty chill (much more lax than other clubs in the area), I came for the chocolate.

The all you can eat chocolate bar did not disappoint. For $38 (alcoholic beverages are a little more, though coffee is free) (Not that I ordered alcohol, Mom.) you get access to as much as you can eat of the 50+ chocolate desserts. The desserts span in quality from small cookies all the way to fine mouse, and while the quality is not exactly the highest in the world, it's all you can eat and in my opinion, well worth the cost. Definitely spend time in the skypark though if you have the reservation to the buffet, as it costs money to get in unless you have the reservation. (Making the cost a lot more reasonable) And my biggest reccomendation is don't eat dinner before you go! You'll regret it when you're there.

I'm going to be staying busy with school here, classes are proving to be challenging and I'll talk about that in a later post. (I have a post that I'm working on about education and ethic differences, but I'm taking my time with it because I'm sending it to the Foster School of Business Website too). However, I do plan on keeping a regular update schedule until I leave Singapore (I'm only here another 7 weeks, it's crazy). I will be posting every weekend from here on out, most likely either Saturday or Sunday (my time, not yours). You can look forward to posts about the Jazz Club I'm checking out here, Shopping in Singapore, and 3 trips to Indonesia including Bali and hopefully summiting two volcanoes!

Thanks for your continued reading! And I look forward to sharing more of my adventures here with you! Until next time!

Thailand in One Blog Post

Ok, prepare yourself. This one is a long post, but stick with me on it. I know that I haven't posted in a while, thank you for all the kind messages of "Why is there no post about Thailand yet?" and "Did you die?" No, I didn't die and this is delayed due to a combo of a horrible midterm and me actually doing re-writes on my book (Yay).

Here we go:

Last week was our Mid-Semester Break. It's hard to believe I'm already pretty much halfway through my adventure here. For break, I spent a week in Thailand, staying in two major cities, each for about 3 nights. Phuket and Bangkok. So I'll break it up into two sections.


Phuket

My favorite of the two trips was to Phuket. Located on the West side of the peninsula in South Thailand, Phuket has wonderful beaches and is next to one of the best bays that you will find in Thailand as well as some excellent islands. While the city itself is not what I expected, it was still my favorite location I've been to so far (besides Singapore). What made this trip so great were two things: exploring the islands near Phuket and Patong Beach.

When it comes to island adventures near Phuket, a very common destination is the Phi Phi grouping to the South. While it does come highly recommended by many of my friends and I may want to visit it at some point, we opted for a different kind of adventure. John Gray's Sea Canoe company is a sea canoe tour that lasts a full day (or more if you want/are on a honeymoon), and I can't say enough great things about this company and the experience of their program "Hongs by Starlight".

(Laying down to enter a cavern. A lot more pictures on Facebook!)

(A secluded beach on Hong Island)

Between canoeing through bat-infested caverns that are only accessible through certain tide times, and having to lie down in the canoes as rock ledges pass over you to enter beautifully secluded lagoons, the sights were nothing less than amazing. In addition, the guides themselves were friendly and hilarious (Including pretending to be pirates with us), the food they served was amazing, and the sights they showed us were spectacular.  I highly recommend their company if you are looking for some great sights in Southern Thailand, well worth the money.

Patong Beach is the main beach of Phuket, and while it is a beautiful and large beach with sun, sand, and activities, it is infested with tourists. Typically I would try to avoid something like that, but flights into Phuket are cheaper than any other airport in Southern Thailand, so money is money. And when it comes down to it, I just needed a day on the beach. (I mean who can complain)

(The makings of a good day on Patong Beach)

Phuket as a city is alright I would say. Not in any way astounding, although the interesting Nightlife and wonderful Thai Massages are enjoyable (Literally hundreds of massage places, like more than there are coffee shops in Seattle). If I ever went back to Southern Thailand, I would really like visit one of three places however, so just advice for you future travelers: Koh Samui (Ang Thong National Park), Koh Phi Phi, and Krabi.


And now... Bangkok.

I'm not going to say too much about Bangkok. But, I do have to give a shout-out/recommendation to the amazing bike tour we had. What an amazing way to spend our first evening! Biking through the streets of Bangkok (though a little challenging at times) and being shown the sights all by an amazing guide (Getting a local to show you around is the way to go). Grasshopper Adventures is the name of the company, and its a must in my opinion if you are visiting the city even for a short time.

(Temple of Dawn on the Bike Tour)

Ok... Bangkok. Honestly, not my favorite city in Southeast Asia, I'm a little biased towards Singapore however. If I had one tip for tourists (especially if you are white) it's this: you will get ripped off. Be careful. Haggle as much as you can and always ask for metered taxi. But it's going to happen regardless, sorry about that. I pretended to only speak Spanish one time, but that only helped a little bit. Also, Tuk Tuk's. While they are a cool form of transportation (Little motorbike/cart things), they will over charge you like there's no tomorrow. Be careful about that too.

That being said, the shopping in Bangkok is excellent ($20 knock-off Diesel watch... I'll tell you it's real if you ask me though). We spent a majority of our shopping time at MBK mall. Great place, lots of shops, and if you're willing to haggle and look around, you can get great prices.

(Street markets like this are also great places to shop if you can haggle decently)

We also visited the Royal Palace (Oh, side note  we were very close to seeing the King at the hospital, but unfortunately we barely missed him while biking through) but as far as the Royal Palace goes, it's kind of a waste of time if you aren't planning on paying to get the full tour (which we weren't) however there are great markets around the Palace that we found for food. If you do go, note this: everyone outside the gate is lying to you. It's not closed, you need proper attire but it's offered free inside, no there are no fees, closures, or entry barriers. Just saying, it will happen.

And then that brings us to the Nightlife. There's nightlife, and that's all I'm going to say. Bangkok is... well Bangkok. If you do plan on going out: be safe and research where you want to go.

Would I go back to Bangkok? No, I've seen it once, and while I think it was a good life experience, it's not really my scene. If I ever go back to Thailand it'll be for an island or a beach :)


So there we go, that is my super-condensed version of what my trip was. Sorry for a lack of humor/blowing through topics. I covered many main points but I left a lot out as well, just for the sake of time (Including a museum of dead people, Phuket city details, restaurants, and housing arrangements in both cities). Let me know if you have any follow up questions (send them on here or facebook, cause apparently I suck at Twitter) I'd be happy to go into detail or let you know about some of the other things I did/saw.

This week will be mostly school work, but coming up in the next month I'm continuing to explore Singapore (Jazz clubs, Night clubs, and Chocolate Buffets) as well as lots of school and work on my book. I'll keep you updated!

Until next time!